Michele Mendi

A secretive though vocal long-billed crake, common in reedbeds and wetlands, with an extended distribution from coastal North Africa, Europe to western China. Present year-round in southern and western Europe (Flegg and Glue 1973), while populations from Central, East and North Europe are migratory. Present in winter only in the Middle East. The nominate subspecies occurs throughout Europe.

Season of assessment

B

Population trendUnknown
Population size
(min-max, best estimate)		315000-653000,438000
Red List categoryLC
Franks, S., Fiedler, W., Arizaga, J., Jiguet, F., Nikolov, B., van der Jeugd, Ambrosini, R, Aizpurua, O., Bairlein, F., Clark, J., Fattorini, N, Hammond, M., Higgins, D, Levering, H., Skellorn, W., Spina, F, Thorup, K. Walker, J., Woodward, I. and Baillie, S.R. (1) (2022) Online Atlas of the movements of European bird populations. https://migrationatlas.org EURING/CMS (1) Principal investigator
Map

Overall Connectivity for Water Rail

The large majority of recoveries is from birds from Central and West Europe, which move to the SW or even W, with winter records mainly in France where the species is a gamebird. The same holds true for northern and eastern breeders. There is a plateau of recovery distance between a few and a dozen hundred kilometres, illustrating the short-distance migratory strategy of the species, at least for those with some ringing effort. It is therefore not evident that the observed pattern is not only due to dedicated effort to hunt or ring the species. There is one tracking study of birds tagged in Norway, which ranged across a large area in Fennoscandia, the Baltic states and even western Russia.

Recoveries by Condition for Water Rail

While half the old recoveries come from dead or hunted birds this changed drastically after 1990 when 95% of recoveries are of live birds, mostly intentionally captured by ringers. This is tightly linked to a huge increase in recovery numbers in the 2000s.

Annual Movements for Water Rail

There are recoveries year-round in the wintering range, while most Central European grounds are empty from November to February. The migration or SW shift of mowing birds does not follow particular routes, while coastal hotspot probably correspond to stations capturing the species. Active migration across Europe peaks at the end of March and the end of October.

Connectivity by Month by Region for Water Rail

Birds from the migratory populations, either in the North, Central and East Europe, are recorded in western Europe (British Isles and North-West France), during the winter months, from November to February, coming back to the breeding grounds in April. The lack of recoveries in March might be due to the closure of the hunting season.

Frédéric Jiguet

References

Statistics Map
N records N individuals N recoveries
Mapped data*
Total available data
*Mapped data include only distant (>= 50 km) recoveries
References Map
Flegg, J.J.M., Glue, D.E.1973 . A Water Rail Study. Bird Study 20 Link to Article (DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/00063657309476360) : 69–80

Back to Analysis